The Nigeria Union of Teacher (NUT), Kaduna chapter, has threatened to embark on a strike if the state government dismisses almost 22,000 persons alleged to have failed its competency test.

NUT chairman, Comrade Audu Amba, at a briefing yesterday warned: “The NUT, Kaduna State, and the entire teachers of Kaduna may not guarantee industrial harmony with the government.”

The threat comes as the Kaduna State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) announced its intention to recruit 25,000 new teachers.A notice signed by its chairman, Nasiru Umar, said the exercise was part of the state government’s effort to equip all schools with competent and qualified staff in an effort to provide quality education.

SUBEB specified possession of the Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) as minimum qualification, adding that it strongly encouraged graduates with education-based degrees such as B.Ed., B.A. Ed., B.Sc. (Ed.), and B.Tech. (Ed.) to apply. Applicants were also expected to have a certificate from the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN).

But arguing that the teachers were unfairly and unprofessionally tested, Amba said decision on the matter rested on TRCN rather than Governor Nasir El-rufai.He said: “It will do a great harm if over 21,780 teachers are relieved of their jobs for the fact that they failed a Primary Four competency test. These teachers were not tested based on professionalism; they were not tested based on what they have learnt in NCE or their degree programmes.”

Meanwhile, private schools have up till December 2018 to stop the use of unregistered teachers or face closure.The warning comes as the Federal Government steps up effort on its Teachers Information System (TIS), a database of qualified and licenced educators in the country.

Head of Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), Professor Olusegun Ajiboye, said: “With the database of teachers being collected by TRCN, parents will be able to visit our website and check the names of persons teaching their children, whether they are qualified or not. They can use such information to run away from bad schools and quacks in private institutions. We call this the Teacher Information System.”

He made the disclosure during a stakeholders’ meeting at the University of Ibadan with chairmen of Universal Basic Education Boards and Post-Primary School Boards in the six southwest states.

“We are setting up a task force to ensure implementation in private schools by January 2019. You cannot be collecting big money from parents and then offer them quack teachers to bastardise the future of students. We are set to put a stop to that. We are getting consultants to monitor them and security operatives will back them. This is the law and it must be obeyed,” said Ajiboye.

The TRCN boss disclosed that the Council now has about 2 million registered teachers. He commended level of compliance by public school teachers and urged the support of governors in the southwest at ensuring teachers are licenced.